


The One(s) I Hold Most Dear To Me

by mainstreamelectricalparade



Series: Two Worlds, One Family [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Adopted Children, Adopted Harley Keener, Adopted Peter Parker, Christmas Fluff, Deaf Peter Parker, Family Feels, Family Fluff, First Christmas, Gen, Kid Fic, Kid Harley Keener, Kid Peter Parker, Parent Tony Stark, kind of because its their first christmas as a family even though they're not infants, tony loves his kids so much guys this is so mushy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:13:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25756420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mainstreamelectricalparade/pseuds/mainstreamelectricalparade
Summary: Peter and Harley knew what Christmas was. Of course they did; they grew up in a low-funds orphanage, not under a rock. Tony himself had, on the two occasions that he'd been in New York over the holidays during the boys' lives, personally played Santa to the kids at the children's home, showing up on Christmas morning with a carload of toys professionally gift-wrapped by a very well-paid crew of mall employees.But this was going to be their first Christmas really with Tony, their first Christmas as a family. And Tony had never been all that fussed about the holidays, before, honestly, but by god, he was going to go all out making it special for his boys if it killed him.
Relationships: Happy Hogan & Tony Stark, Harley Keener & Peter Parker, Harley Keener & Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Roberta Rhodes & Tony Stark, implied Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: Two Worlds, One Family [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1513346
Comments: 48
Kudos: 281
Collections: Irondad and his Iron kids





	The One(s) I Hold Most Dear To Me

**Author's Note:**

> this was for a request on tumblr, but i had to post it here because so many people here love this series so much!

Peter and Harley knew what Christmas was. Of course they did; they grew up in a low-funds orphanage, not under a rock. Tony himself had, on the two occasions that he'd been in New York over the holidays during the boys' lives, personally played Santa to the kids at the children's home, showing up on Christmas morning with a carload of toys professionally gift-wrapped by a very well-paid crew of mall employees.

But this was going to be their first Christmas really _with_ Tony, their first Christmas as a family. And Tony had never been all that fussed about the holidays, before, honestly, but by god, he was going to go all out making it special for his boys if it _killed him_.

Or... killed Happy.

"Sure you couldn't have gotten a bigger tree?" Happy grunted, as he tried to wrestle the gigantic thing upright while Tony screwed it into place in the tree stand. "I think it might only be a couple inches taller than the one they put up at the Rockefeller."

"Very funny," Tony said dryly, finally getting the stand secured around the base of the tree so that it no longer wobbled when Happy released it. Tony's ceilings were high, sure, but they weren't _77 feet tall_. The tree he'd ordered from Oregon was only ten feet high. "Quit whining, I want to get the lights on this thing before the boys get up."

"Oh, god..."

In Tony's defense, it was well worth it to see the twin looks of astonishment on Peter and Harley's faces when they emerged from their room an hour later to see the giant tree standing in the foyer.

"That's the biggest freaking tree I've ever seen," Harley said very simply, standing at the bottom of it and tilting his head all the way back to see the top. Peter stood a few feet behind him to avoid the inevitable crick in his neck, his mouth dangling open like his jaw had unhinged itself.

Tony bit back a laugh at Harley's bluntness, crouching down beside the boys to talk to them at their level, signing along for Peter. "Yeah? And what do you think of the _biggest freaking tree you've ever seen?_ You like it?"

Peter wandered closer to the tree, entranced by the soft glow of the hundreds of tiny, colorful lights strung round and round the tree's branches. He reached out to touch a blue one, then turned around with a big, toothy grin on his face, the gap of his recently-lost front tooth on full display. _"Pretty!"_ he signed. _"Thank you!"_

Tony's heart seemed to burst with love at the excitement on the boys' faces. "You're welcome," he replied warmly, laughing a little when Peter waddled over to hug him tightly. If this was his reaction to just the tree, his little mind was going to be absolutely blown once presents started stacking up underneath. "Hey, go give Uncle Happy a hug, too, he helped me put it up."

"No, don't give Uncle Happy a hug-" Happy started to protest, but his words, unaccompanied by sign, literally fell on deaf ears as Peter hurried to attack his legs in a similar manner. And of course, even though he had heard Happy perfectly, Harley followed Peter's lead and hugged their uncle as well, simply because Happy had complained and Harley was a brat. Tony did absolutely nothing to muffle his laughter at the disgruntled look on Happy's face.

* * *

Tony dreaded the SI holiday party every year. It was boring, the guests were all stuffy businessmen who all made the same polite small talk about the same five topics the entire night (two of which were usually not-so-cleverly disguised attempts at ass-kissing), and they dragged on forever. Honestly, the only way to get through one without wanting to commit either suicide or mass homicide was getting very, very drunk.

This year, however, was different. Pepper had barged into his office one morning and proposed a plan to make the party child-friendly this year, so that Tony could bring Harley and Peter along and have fun watching them have fun. Honestly, _anything_ would have sounded more appealing than the usual, but this was truly best-case scenario, so Tony jumped at the change. They arranged a petting zoo, a game room, and a special guest of honor: Santa Claus.

The night of the party, Tony stood back and watched Harley drag Peter around the rented-out ballroom by the arm, looking at absolutely everything, gorging themselves on cookies and other treats from the dessert table that Tony knew would inevitably lead to tummyaches later, but he didn't have the heart to make them stop when they were smiling brighter than the lights on the trees.

Pepper stepped up to Tony's side and joined him in watching the boys; Harley had picked up a large plastic candy cane decoration and poked Peter with it, prompting Peter to grab one as well; they were now staging a sword fight all across the room, ducking and weaving in between guests and giggling in delight.

"I don't suppose it would kill you to say 'you were right', would it?" she teased, taking a sip from the champagne flute she was holding.

Tony scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Suppose not," he retorted, and deliberately paused long enough to make her laugh and elbow him in the ribs.

_"Tony."_

"Ok, fine, you were right," he said, smiling and tapping his own glass against hers gently. "Another brilliant plan by the incomparable Miss Potts."

They watched Harley and Peter play for a while longer, and then Peter seemed to start to tire out, so he set down his candy cane and looked around, scanning the room until he spotted Tony and then picking a careful path through the crowd to get to him, lifting his arms when he was close enough; a question that needed no words. Passing Pepper his glass to free his hands, Tony leaned down and swung him up onto his hip, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek.

"Wearing yourself out, huh, bub?" Tony asked, brushing a rogue curl out of Peter's face. Peter said nothing, simply nodded and rested his head on Tony's shoulder, sighing softly. Tony patted his leg. "That's ok, you can hang out here with me for a bit." He looked back to where Harley was now poking around the corner of the room where they had set up Santa's big plush throne and bag of kiddie party favors. "Harley can entertain himself for a little while, huh?"

Peter, apparently getting tired enough that his lip-reading skills were a bit fuzzier than usual, furrowed his brow as he tried to figure out what Tony had said, since he couldn't sign with his arms full of seven year old, but he finally nodded before immediately putting his head back down on his dad's shoulder, mumbling nonsensically. Pepper covered her mouth to hide an endeared chuckle.

Tony made his rounds with Peter dozing in his arms for a while, offering his left hand for people to shake since he was unwilling to dislodge the sleepy little angel from the comfy spot he had made for himself in Tony's right. When Pepper made the announcement that Santa was on his way, however, Tony figured Peter would want to be awake for that, so he woke him gently and told him what was going on.

Harley came to find them not long after that, grinning up at Peter and signing as he spoke. "Let's go talk to Santa!"

Honestly, Tony was a little surprised that _Harley_ was so enthusiastic about the idea. Of the two of them, he would have guessed Harley would be more skeptical, but maybe the energy of the rest of the kids at the party had gotten to him and piqued his interest more than normal.

Peter nodded, so Tony lowered him to the floor. Harley immediately seized his hand and led him in the direction of Santa's throne, where the big man in red himself had just taken a seat and kids were starting to line up to get a picture and tell him their wish lists. Tony followed, because there was no way he was going to miss out on the opportunity to watch the boys talk to Santa Claus, possibly for the first time in their lives. He wasn't sure if they'd ever been to see a mall Santa in New York.

Peter was still rubbing sleep from his eyes by the time it was their turn to talk to Santa, and he hung back for a moment, possibly a little intimidated by the idea of talking to someone he didn't know, but Harley marched forward fearlessly, and, to Tony's surprise (and Santa's, it seemed), threw his arms around the man's round velvet-clothed middle.

Santa appeared taken aback for a moment, after having dealt with three small children in a row who had started whimpering as soon as they had been placed in his lap, but he recovered quickly and returned the hug, patting Harley's head gently. "Hello there, little one," he greeted warmly.

Harley stepped back and looked up into the man's face critically. "You're not the Santa I talked to last year," he said bluntly. Santa opened and closed his mouth a couple times, but Harley kept talking before he could BS his way through something about the magic of Christmas. "But that's ok. I just wanted to tell you I got what I asked for. Even though it took a little longer than I said."

Tony stepped a little closer to hear.

"And what was that?" Santa asked kindly.

Harley looked over his shoulder at Tony, who quickly tried to look like he wasn't eavesdropping and failed spectacularly. He rolled his eyes at his dad and turned back to Santa, to whom he whispered (kind of loudly), "My dad adopted me and my brother."

Santa was at a loss for words. Tony felt like sitting down right there at the edge of the ballroom and crying.

If he hugged Harley a little extra tight at bedtime that night, nobody said anything.

Well.

Harley said something. Harley complained about breathing capacity and _mushy dad stuff_. But Tony knew the kid was hamming it up, because he hugged him back just as tight.

* * *

Rhodey's mom flew out to California in late December to spend the holiday with her son. She suggested the possibility of a family get-together on Christmas Day, gathering at Tony's house, where she would make breakfast and they could all watch the boys open presents. And maybe in the future Tony would say it was a fantastic idea, but this year he had a feeling that Harley and Peter might be a little overwhelmed on Christmas, even with just the three of them. Having more people there would be an emotional overload.

So instead, Rhodey and Roberta dropped by after the boys went to bed on Christmas Eve, bringing with them a heaping pile of gifts that Tony suspected they'd both been hoarding possibly since he first mentioned the boys back when they were babies.

He hadn't ever been subtle about his love for his kids. Nobody needed to _tell_ him that he was an idiot for waiting six years to bring them home; he already knew.

For the first time since the last time he spent Christmas in Pennsylvania with the Rhodes family as a much younger adult, Tony went to bed looking forward to Christmas morning.

It ended up coming much faster than it usually did, because this year was the first year he had two excited seven year old boys bursting into his bedroom at six in the morning, little bare feet pattering across the floor so they could throw themselves onto Tony's bed and jump on him to make _absolutely certain_ that he was _definitely_ awake.

As if he could be anything but, after Peter's knee knocked squarely into his bladder.

(The adorable, slightly too loud for the early hour choruses of "Merry Christmas, Daddy!" made up for the abrupt urgent trip to the bathroom, though.)

When Tony emerged from the bathroom, Peter and Harley were still sitting on his bed waiting for him, staring at him expectantly, unable to sit still in their excitement. Tony laughed. "Ok, go on then, I'm up, Christmas isn't going to experience itself," he said, shooing the boys off his bed and chasing them out of his room and down the hall.

The tree lights twinkled merrily as Harley and Peter raced each other out into the living room, where they stopped dead in their tracks halfway across to stare open-mouthed at all the things that had magically appeared overnight.

(Tony sidestepped around the room while they were distracted to snap a few pictures of the priceless looks on their faces.)

Peter gasped loudly when he spotted the empty plate on the coffee table, running over to inspect it. He and Harley had set out cookies and a mug of coffee for Santa the night before (Tony suggested that the guy might need a little extra something more than just milk to help him stay awake while he was delivering presents all night), and Tony wasn't sure what the boys had been expecting to happen, but Peter looked suitably shocked and delighted by the fact that the cookies were reduced to a few crumbs scattered across the plate, and the coffee had been thoroughly obliterated.

Harley peeked into the foyer, where the space under the tree was overflowing with brightly wrapped gifts of all shapes and sizes. He turned to look at Tony with wide eyes, and asked softly, "Are those for us?"

Tony knelt down and tugged Harley closer to kiss his forehead. "You bet," he replied, smiling as a look of wonder and delight dawned across his boy's face. "And I know I need to be the boring responsible parent just for a little bit and make sure you two eat something before you start tearing into all that wrapping paper, but I'll make you a deal and let you dig through your stockings while I make breakfast. Ok?"

Harley nodded eagerly, bouncing on his toes and hurrying over to tell Peter about the _excellent_ deal they had struck, while Tony got up and went to get the boys' stockings off their designated hooks on the mantle. He retreated into the kitchen to whip up a quick batch of French toast, listening to the sounds of delighted giggles and gasps and whispers as the boys looked to see what tiny treasures had been left for them overnight. Every once in a while one of the boys would trek into the kitchen to show Tony something that they found particularly cool or entertaining, such as a pen that wrote in nine different colors, or a little Iron Man bobblehead that looked _nothing_ like Tony's actual suit, which had both boys in fits of laughter for a good ten minutes.

(It had given Tony a good chuckle, too, that's why he bought it.)

Once breakfast had been eaten, washed down by mugs of hot cocoa at the request of Peter and his massive sweet tooth, the three of them sat down in front of the mound of presents under the glittering Christmas tree. Tony knew his knees would likely not thank him for that later, but screw it. It was Christmas.

Peter and Harley had no idea where to even think about starting, so Tony picked out a present for each of them at random, leaning back against his hand and watching them tear the paper off eagerly. He didn't think there was a single thing for him under that tree, but watching his boys open their own presents with increasing excitement and joy was gift enough, which was quite possibly the corniest thought he'd ever had in his life, but no less true.

(He did end up being wrong, though. Among Peter and Harley's dozens of presents, Roberta had smuggled her famous hand-knit sweaters into the pile for all of them, Tony included, and Rhodey bought him a stupid t-shirt that had _#1 Iron Dad_ stamped across the front. Tony knew it was supposed to be a joke, but joke's on Rhodey, that was Tony's new favorite shirt.)

Among Peter's favorite presents were a series of LEGO Star Wars sets that he immediately began chattering excitedly about in his sweet, slightly halting speech, too busy pointing to every detail that he could see on the box to bother with sign.

Harley similarly got several new toy sets, but unlike Peter he had little patience for tiny, fiddly LEGO pieces, so his were more along the lines of action figures and car tracks. He did, however, also get a kit to make water rockets, since he seemed to be developing an interest in science right along with his brother, although Tony had to make him pinky swear that he would only use it in the yard, when he caught the mischievous glint in the kid's eye.

This was the kid who kept asking Tony if he could help him make a potato gun. When Tony asked why he _wanted_ a potato gun, he simply said, "Just in case."

Like that didn't raise more questions than it answered.

It took all morning, but finally the pile of presents dwindled down to nothing. Both of the boys babbled an endless string of "thank yous", to Tony, the Rhodes', Pepper, and Santa Claus, even though four out of the five were not present to actually thank. Tony enjoyed the giant snuggles of two very grateful, happy boys for the better part of twenty minutes, but then tummies started growling in hunger and he sent them off to put their new things in their room while he cleaned up the wrapping paper carnage and started lunch.

While the water was boiling for pasta, however, and Tony was stuffing the last of the paper into a garbage bag to recycle, Harley and Peter came back out with hands behind their backs, wearing twin looks of _something expensive is very, very broken_ on their faces.

Tony straightened up, raising an eyebrow. "What's with the guilty puppy faces, huh?" he asked suspiciously. "What could you have possibly got up to in the last ten minutes?"

The boys looked at each other, then back at Tony, and then they removed their hands from behind their backs and offered Tony two very badly wrapped Christmas presents, complete with sloppy bows and gift tags.

Tony's heart melted. They had just been nervous to give him Christmas presents? As if he could do anything but wholeheartedly adore anything they had to offer him.

He knelt down and gestured for them to come closer, tucking one arm around each of them when they were within reach and pressing a kiss to each of their cheeks. "Are those for me?" he asked, smiling.

"Yeah," Harley mumbled, shuffling his feet in embarrassment. Peter nodded in agreement, cheeks flushed red.

"Well, let me see them then, huh?" Tony teased gently, taking the present from Harley first and starting to peel the paper off. The boys held their breath as they watched him unwrap a custom coffee mug. One side was printed with a picture of Harley and Peter, sitting side by side at the bottom of the stairs with their cheeks pressed together, giggling at something or other that Tony had completely forgotten about three months after taking the picture, but it was still one of his favorites. On the other side, the words _We Love You, Dad!_ were printed in bold white lettering inside a big red heart.

"Miss Pepper helped us get it," Harley explained, sounding a little nervous, while Tony sat back on his heels staring at the mug in his hand through blurred vision. "She said you'd like it, 'cause you like coffee and stuff that reminds you of us, which is kinda gross but also kinda nice..."

Tony laughed, cradling the mug to his chest with one hand and reaching out to ruffle Harley's hair with the other. "I love it, bud," he said earnestly. "I'm gonna use it forever." Harley smiled brightly, and then Peter offered out the second present, clearly encouraged by Tony's reaction to the first.

The second present was something in a picture frame, which Tony immediately knew was going to make him cry again, and was also going straight on his desk in a place of honor so he could see it forever. When it was fully unwrapped he turned it over to see the picture inside, and felt his insides turn into a pile of goo in an instant.

The picture was also from a few months ago, but instead of being taken inside the house, it was taken when Tony took an extended weekend off from work and took the boys to Disneyland for the first time. Shockingly, it had been Pepper's idea, and she had even tagged along, because, in her words, "Even you're not talented enough to take your own family photos, Tony."

(This had resulted in many people assuming Tony and Pepper were a couple, and the boys were theirs biologically. They stopped bothering to make corrections after the first few times, because the stammering was frankly a little embarrassing, plus it only brought more confusion and took time away from the general enjoyment of watching the boys experience Disney for the first time.)

The photo the boys had chosen to put in the frame, which had clearly been hand-decorated by one or both of them, complete with macaroni and glitter, was one taken in front of the Astro Orbiter in Tomorrowland. Tony was standing with Peter on his hip, Harley latched onto his back like a little monkey with Tony's other arm reaching around behind himself to make sure he didn't fall. None of them were looking at the camera; Harley was in the middle of saying something, probably about the ride that they had just gotten off of. Tony's head was turned slightly in Peter's direction, mouth set in a crooked half-smile, and Peter had one hand holding onto the baseball cap perched precariously on his head so it didn't fall off as he leaned forward and pressed a big kiss to Tony's cheek.

Tony hadn't realized Pepper had taken a picture of that. They had been in the middle of posing for a picture in that moment, yes, but Tony thought she only took one when they were _actually_ posed, not in the moments before.

He rather liked this one, better, he decided. And obviously, so did the boys, if they had picked it to frame for a Christmas present.

"That one's 'cause you keep sayin' you miss us when you're at work," Harley explained, pointing unnecessarily to the frame in Tony's hand. "Now you don't have to."

"It's perfect," Tony announced, his heart seeming to explode with love. He held up the picture and the mug. "These are amazing presents." Setting the treasured items down gently, he opened his arms so that he could hug his boys; they both beamed and rushed forward to snuggle close, settling in his lap. He kissed the tops of their heads soundly as he tucked them into his chest. "I love you both. So much." He offered Peter a little one-handed _I love you_ sign so that he could see what had been said, and Peter returned it before turning his face into Tony's chest and curling up. Tony could faintly hear the pasta water starting to boil over, but he couldn't be bothered to disentangle himself from this moment, just yet.

The mug and the picture in the hand-decorated frame were undoubtedly his most prized belongings, but nothing that could be wrapped and put under a tree would ever come close to being as special as this.

**Author's Note:**

> comment if you love these babies as much as tony does
> 
> find me on tumblr [@riseuplikeglitterandgold!](https://riseuplikeglitterandgold.tumblr.com/)


End file.
